


The Rout of Arkanis

by GenerallyHuxurious (GallifreyanOmnishambles)



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Angst, Armitage Hux - Freeform, Child Abandonment, Dream Sharing, Escape, Flashbacks, M/M, Refugees, War, fall of the empire
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-10
Updated: 2016-07-10
Packaged: 2018-07-22 15:42:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,196
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7444690
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GallifreyanOmnishambles/pseuds/GenerallyHuxurious
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What if Commandant Brendol Hux was forced the claim his son thanks to the circumstances around the fall of the Empire and the beginning of the First Order's exile.</p><p>Everyone knows. The little red head boy standing alone just inside the transport shuttles doors watching his mother get swept away with the flow of the panicking crowd is Brendol Hux' bastard. The droids tested him, there’s no denying it.</p><p>And doesn’t that just say everything about Brendol Hux? Always settling for what he can get because he’s not good enough to get the best. And so he ends but with weak-willed, useless, illegitimate four-year-old Armitage.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Rout of Arkanis

**Author's Note:**

> I had many feels about the reveal today, not so much the name as the little bits of history and the horrible things Brendol Hux said about his son.

Kylo was terrified. It wasn't an emotion he experienced often. Fear, certainly. Fear in battle, fear of failure or corruption, fear of the Light. But not this bone chilling, heart clenching terror. Snoke had shown him such horrors for so long that he believed such emotion had been burned right out of him.

Not now though.

Now he's in a forest of legs, figures crowding dangerously around him. Booted and bare feet alike buffet him, turning him this way and that as they threaten to crush him or tear him away from the anchoring grip of the hand on his arm. It's dark down here, the press of khaki uniforms and rain soaked civilian wear cutting out most of the meagre light from the heavy clouds above. TIE fighters roar overhead, momentarily dimming the light even further, their mechanical shriek cutting through the cacophony of sirens and screams.

A boot catches the back of his knee, tearing the skin left uncovered by his short trousers. He falls. It feels like forever as other feet push him further. Blows rain down on his back, his legs. He brings his free arm up to protect his head. He's sure he's about to die.

Without warning the grip on his arm tightens and hauls him upward. He tries to keep the sound inside, but still he screams at the unexpected wrenching of his shoulder joint. It's a bad angle for all his weight to be suspended from his arm. Logically he knows that if he stays down he will die still he cannot help but fight to escape the pain.

Arms are wrapped around him now, warm and comforting despite their birdlike fragility. There was never a time when his mother wasn't like this. He has no memory of her where her bones are not barely concealed by paper thin skin and pale blue veins. He is not much better himself, half starved, his body using ever ounce of nutrition to grow upwards, no scraps of fat left over to cushion his limbs. He clings to her, his face pressed tight against her headscarf and the curls of red hair escaping its folds. The grim faces of the crowd are even more terrifying than the anonymous darkness at their feet.

Kylo recognises the disconnection now. This is not Leia Organa, who was always small and thin but had the softness of a proper diet in her limbs. Nor is it himself, who grew up tall and gangly but never knew hunger until he began his first apprenticeship. Because of course he has endured two apprenticeships and twenty nine years of living. He is a full grown human now, taller than his mother by a fifth of her height. He never walked with her through a terrified crowd. Off-base the General and Senator took transports everywhere. He has no frame of reference for this.

Dimly and with much effort he becomes aware of his body, his own body, far from this scene. He feels the mattress at his back, the sheet that has strayed down to tangle around his knees, the warm press of his lover where he clings to his chest. Hux.

He is projecting his dreams. Kylo has never experienced anything if this kind before now. Before his General he never would have allowed anyone to come so close. Even his Knights sleep in shifts to keep themselves free of the influence of one another's minds. He muses briefly on the level of connection they must have developed for Force-neutral Hux to reach his mind...

The dream moves on, subsuming Kylo's thought processes in another wave of fear.

Figures in Imperial uniforms are shouting instructions too distantly for him to hear. The crowd squeeze their way through a gateway bearing the legend "Arkanis Imperial Academy". A line of transports sit on the asphalt of what must have been a training ground until quite recently. The landing pads and runways behind the building are swarming with combat vehicles. Many show signs of battle damage.

The words of comfort she whispers lull Kylo into a sense of calm he may never have felt in his life. This is a rout, a refugee crisis on a massive scale, and yet that lilting oddly accented voice brings peace. But not for long.

As his mother moves closer to the shouting officers a TIE fighter rolls screaming through the air, one wing trailing smoke and flame. Hux turns his head to watch in interest, not understanding even as his mother throws them to the ground. The fighter strikes the side of the building, demolishing on of the towers and showering the crowd with burning debris. Hux stares at the broken bodies that do not move and the ones that still try to rise. It is first time he has seen blood. He does not understand the significance.

His mother is running now, clutching him to her chest as the officers scream over the crowd.

"Relatives of Imperial Officers have priority! All applicants will submit to blood screening! Transports will depart on the hour!"

She is barging her way through now, not caring for the elbows and fists that strike at them. She's aiming not for the officers but for the testing droids.

"I... I am the common law wife of Commandant Brendol Hux! This is his son! Please let us on board I beg you! The Rebels are coming!"

Hux cries as the droid jabs him with a needle, it's processors whirring as his blood is analysed. The needle hurt but he's also frightened of the Rebels. He's seen the posters, he knows what they'll do now they've reached the last of the loyal Imperial planets.

Three officers are pushing towards them whilst his mother quietly chants "don't notice us, we are not here" under her breath. It doesn't work, it hasn't worked in years. He can barely remember a time when she could still levitate small objects or change a mind with a wave of her hand.

"Get out of here street rats!" The tallest officer barks, his lip curling as he takes in their dishevelled, emaciated appearance. "The transports are for officers families only..."

[Sir,] the droid interrupts in binary, [she states that she is the wife of Commandant Hux.]

"The wife of... Ridiculous! GET OUT!" The officer turns to summon Stormtroopers to make good on his order, recoiling with a look of rage when she grabs his arm.

"I bore him a son, by the laws of Arkanis I have the same rights..." She's cut off by the officer's hand around her throat.

"This is still the Empire! Whatever your local laws might say they do not apply to Imperial officers. Beside which, why should anyone believe you? You're nothing but a street whore, this whelp could be anyone's bastard!"

[The female does not match the genetic data for Commode Irulan Hux.] the droid began. [This female is one _{a passing TIE fighter obscures the name}_ , wanted criminal. The male is unknown to our records. Analysis shows the father is Commandant Brendol Hux. As per protocol the Commandant has been informed of his son's arrival.]

"What?! What protocol?! What have you done, you stupid machine?!" The officer shouted, rounding on the droid.

Whilst the officers bickered about whether or not to bring his mother aboard in chains she did her best to distract Hux, stroking his hair and speaking as softly as she could in spite of the screaming panicking crowd.

"Whatever happens darling, please remember, mother loves you. I love you so much Armitage, my darling. You'll be safe with your father. The Empire will protect you, I promise. Better than I ever could here. Please darling, do as they say. I swear I'll come find you, when it's safe."

The officers reached a decision and Hux was dragged from his mother's arms. "The Commandant has already been told and the transport leaves in three minutes. The boy comes with us. We don't have space for prisoners, run and we won't chase you. The Rebels can deal with you, whore."

Twisting in their grip Hux managed to wrap his arms around his mothers neck one last time before he was pulled back into the ship.

He stood at the top of the ramp, a minuscule figure as stormtroopers and refugees poured past him. Over the roar of the engines an automated voice called the intervals until departure. He didn't cry now. He couldn't. He simply stood and watched as the flow of the crowd dragged his mother away from him.

It was only when her red hair vanished from sight that Kylo realised what had been strange- adult Hux could no longer remember his mother's face. Though her voice, her touch, and even her perfume had remained crystal clear, her face had been blank.

Somewhere in the waking world Kylo heard Hux sob and burrow closer into his side. His heart ached.

The ship left the planet. Hux was alone. All around him officers paused, pointing and whispering.

"Brendol Hux's bastard."  
"You can tell from the hair."  
"Not just that, a droid tested the brat, there's no denying it at all."  
"... Some street whore, the Commodore must be losing her mind..."  
"Look at it, so small, I doubt it'll even survive on its own."  
"Not if Irulan has her way it won't."  
"Oh don't be like that, she's not given him a child herself, she'll have to accept it."  
"Mustafar will freeze over first."  
"Hux will make her, he's always wanted an heir."  
"Doesn't that just say everything about Brendol Hux though, he has to take what he can get because he's not good enough to get the best."  
"Poor mite, someone should help him."  
"Not me, I'm not getting involved."  
"Coward."

The officer who walked towards him was old, his movements halting and his hair completely white. "What's your name, boy?"

Hux stared up at the officer, the man impossibly tall and imposing from his four year old's perspective. "Armitage." He said quietly.

"You can call me Colonel Tarkin. Come on, let's go find your father."

Waves of nostalgia threaten to break Kylo out of this dream and drag him back into his own memories. He remembers oh so vividly standing on the bridge of ships when he was this small, barely able to see over the consoles, everything so exciting and incomprehensible. He'd loved his time on such ships, when everyone was eager to show a Princess' son the working of their vessel.

This was a very different environment, for all that it was visually the same. The crew was in a state of panic as they fled the battle below them and the command staff were distracted.

Hux knew the portly man standing at the rear of the bridge arguing with the severe woman with yellow braids. The man came to their house, though not often, with far too many platitudes and kind words- but never, ever enough money. How many times has he heard his mother weeping over this man. How many times had he caught him sneaking through their kitchen late at night. He didn't trust him.

"... I know what the comm message said but my officers will have dealt with it, they won't have been stupid enough to actually bring him onboard!"

"You said you'd paid her off! You swore she'd never darken our door again! You promised Brendol!" The woman spat, waving the data pad as if she intended to strike him with it.

"This is war, the Rebels are gaining ground, you can't blame a mother for trying to protect her son..."

She turned and fix the boy with a dead eyed stare. "I should have had it drowned the day she whelped it in the servants quarters!"

Hux was shaking now as Brendol followed her gaze and finally noticed his son's presence on the bridge. Kylo could feel the adult shaking as well, back in the waking world.

This was too much, too cruel, he couldn't let Hux continue in this thread any longer. Groping outwards with Force he tipped over the bedside cabinet, the crash loud enough to wake Hux and thus free Kylo from his secondhand slumber.

"Pfassk," Hux mumbled, his voice thick with sleep and still trembling slightly with the remnants of his fear. "Lights 30%."

Kylo watched him as he sat up to survey the damage with bleary eyes.

"What the frell, Kylo?" He asked, sounding more exhausted than the Knight had ever heard him. "Just, what the actual frell?"

"Nightmare." He said with a shrug. "Come back to sleep, I'll fix it in the morning."

Hux slumped gracelessly forward, pillowing his head on Kylo's chest once more. "You need to get your mind under control. Like me. I never dream."

He was asleep before Kylo had even called for the lights to turn off again. Brushing briefly over his mind he found a vision already building in the General's mind. In it a four year old Armitage ran into the arms of a crouching woman with long red hair and no facial features. Perhaps it was a blessing that Hux did not remember his dreams.


End file.
